• AllMyVinyl #150
• Band: U2
• Album Title: The Joshua Tree
• Release Date: 9 Mar 1987
• Date purchased: 5 Sep 2020
• Location purchased: Amazon
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 2
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

This is one I delayed writing about for a bit, because I had so many memories of this one I wasn’t sure where to start.  When I started this one originally it was around the time I posted the last entry in the series.  Also around that time Ozzy died, and I wasn’t in a huge mood to reflect back on other music.  So this sat.  This Saturday afternoon I got the urge to get the machine rolling again, so here we are.  Next in the series is “The Joshua Tree” by U2.

Oddly at this time I didn’t care for U2 – This was their fifth album overall, but the material before this didn’t interest me.  Things like “I Will Follow” – blech.  I know a lot of fans tend to prefer the earliest U2 stuff, but I don’t.  U2 until this point just did nothing for me.  What was the turning point I believe was MTV and this album.  Specifically the video for “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for” got played a lot, and when you watched hours and hours of MTV, you tended to see a lot of things repeated.  To me, it was the song that got my attention.  For some reason I was fascinated by watching them walk down the streets of Vegas while the song played.  I don’t want to get into the song now as it’s too early in this for a song breakdown, but the music still works for me now.  I put the video on during the writing of this paragraph, and I sat here with my leg going along to the beat.  It still works, and I can easily see why 1987 me got turned around on U2 with this song.   It’s actually a bit odd because 87 me was deep into hard rock and a lot of hair metal.  This is anything but, but a good song works – this worked.

The album came out in March 1987, but an event happened in my life in July that was a bit more important.  I met my wife for the first time in July.  I bring that up because we met at the Jersey shore (the real one, nothing to do with that lame ass TV show).  As we were at a shore house together for several days one of the things we talked about was TV and music.  We found out we both were into the then brand new Joshua Tree album by U2.  Back then I was all about my Walkman, and had my cassette copy of Joshua Tree with me when I met her.  That cassette copy remains to this day in 2025.  On top of that, both of us bought it on CD as well and we both have our OG CD copies too.  The draw of this album goes way back with us.  But I never owned it on vinyl until 2020.  It was one of the earlier things I bought in the fall of 2020 when I was going around buying up albums that either myself or my wife really liked, so that’s why I have it on vinyl now.  But the fact that I still have my OG prints of an album that my wife of nearly 30 years and I both loved when we first met powers this album for me.

In 2017 I bought a 4 CD Super Deluxe package of The Josuha Tree.  It’s CD’s, but it’s packaged in a thing that more than once in the intervening years I thought was vinyl, because the box size is Identical to a vinyl box set.  It’s surprisingly still in print, but I have to say I kind of regret buying it.  It’s not like it’s a bad package, but I way overpaid for it – I was caught up in the 30th anniversary, going with my wife to see U2 that year (more on that later).  Due to it being the size of a vinyl box, the photo booklets are quite nice – there’s a lot of good imgary, but I really feel they should have put a vinyl disc in there of the base album.   There is a version of this that had both vinyl and CD in it, but I opted for just CD, which was the mistake part.  Oh well – I wasn’t buying vinyl in 2017.  There’s a trailer video for this release which I’ve embedded below (if you’re reading this on my blog). I’m fairly sure the vinyl I’m listening to for this is a standalone version of the vinyl that’s in the Super Deluxe box, but I kind of wish I had gotten them both together when I bought this.  Oh well.

Getting back to the regular album… Oh sure, it’s a good one on its own, but the draw of the memories from when we first met that I can recall when listening give the album an extra punch.  I won’t be able to quantify that kind of thing when I get into writing about the songs themselves, but it will be there in my mind.  Most people who listen to music more than casually have an album or song that means something to them – where it transcends the music itself and becomes “a thing”.  That’s what this album was to me – was one of the first things in our life that we glommed onto together from the time when we hadn’t met each other yet.  BTW, the first was Alf – if you weren’t around in 1986/87, you couldn’t comprehend how huge Alf was.  But I digress.

The Joshua Tree album could have easily stayed in the past there because not everything we liked from then has aged as well.  Heart’s album from that year (Bad Animals) hasn’t aged terribly well, and we can’t even listen to their cover of “Alone” anymore despite loving it when it was new.  But this U2 album remains strong in my overall music catalog.   I wouldn’t call it a perfect album, but more than a few songs would get rated 5 stars or 10 out of 10.  There’s a lot of goodness here….

Where the Streets Have No Name  – I always felt that this was a great album opener.  It had a fade in with a slow guitar sound (not acoustic) that built towards when the main part of the song got going.  Due to the the title, I always had a “car” feel to it – and that was seared into my brain when I saw U2 live in 2017 for the 30th annv tour of this album.  They started the show with the shot I have above of a street – the POV was going down the street.  When I hear the song now, I see the visual from that show, probably because it visualized what I saw in my head already listening to the song.  I’m not always a fan of a guitar sound repeating ad naseum through the entire song, but it works for me here big time.  I quite like The Edge’s restrained guitar sound here.  It still has his distinctive “U2 Sound”, but he’s not the focus on the song.  Has a nice simple driving beat that serves the vocals which are the big draw for me here.  Not even the lyrics themselves, but Bono’s delivery has a musical fluidity that works with the generally restrained music in the song too.  It’s kind of odd that the strengths I talk about here are things I’ve criticized other songs for doing the same thing – but this song works for me perfectly.

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – This is another song that has a tie to my past.  But first..  It’s got another great simple beat by Clayton & Mullen.  Their work isn’t always the most complex, but on the first two songs of this album it is both an essential part and not in your face part of the songs.  Again their beat drives that “U2 Guitar sound” with Bono’s vocals.  Where you’d get a guitar solo, you get some restrained noodling by The Edge.  It’s one of those “feel” songs for me – because musically as I said, it’s not in your face, but man do I like this song a lot.  That might have to do with the aforementioned “tie”.  When this first came out I hadn’t yet met my new girlfriend (my now wife), and at that time in my life at Age 22 I started to think about the handful of ex girlfriends I had at that point in my life, and the title of the song “was” me when it came to girlfriends.  Whenever I had a breakup after this song came out It made me think “Well, that didn’t work”, so this song for me has always been a breakup song. Musically I still like it too, but it’s more a “thing” than a song for me.

With Or Without You – This song as I recall was a track that my wife used to use as Exhibit A to inform everyone about the hotness of Bono.  The vast bulk of the music video is Bono staring into the camera – was basically fire for my then girlfriend. haha. :).  Musically of all the big tracks from this album, it’s not my favorite.  I don’t dislike it, but the slowness at the front part kind of turns me off.   It ends up not so quiet, but in some ways I feel about this song what I do about “I Will Follow”. 40 years out I can like it a bit more, but I remember back in the 80’s thinking “this would have been better of it had a harder edge to it”.   The 2025 version of me can appreciate the song more – it’s got that thing The Edge does where his “U2 Guitar sound” is sprinkled through the track like a container of red pepper flakes on some italian food.  :)

Bullet the Blue Sky – In addition to vinyl, I listened to this song in the car while driving out for breakfast Sunday morning.  I had written the first three songs, so the concept of the rhythm section was already in my head, so I could hear it too.  I didn’t realize until today how much of an impact that is to U2.  The song starts off with a drum intro – and then is mostly driven by a bass line – as opposed to a guitar line.  That mostly runs through the entire song.  The Edge’s guitar work still sounds like him, but pushes the boundaries of his traditional U2 guitar sound.  U2 doesn’t do hard rock/metal – but they COULD.  I would love they went full on metal for a track (kind of like Pink Floyd did with “The Nile Song“).  Usually by the time this song is over, I’ve totally bought into the bass line and the guitar sound just sears across it creating a really cool juxtaposition of different sounds in the same song.  Works super well together.  The best guitar stuff IMO starts around 3:15 into the song.

Some of my favorite U2 songs that came after this album are “Love & Peace or Else” (from the Atomic bomb album) and “American Soul” (from the Songs of Innocence album). Both of them share some sonic similarities with Bullet.  It seems to show that the U2 rhythm section was a larger part of the overall sound than I ever recognized before.

Running to Stand Still – This starts with a really different sound for U2 – an acoustic guitar intro that really sounds like something you’d hear out of early country music in the 50’s or thereabouts.   It doesn’t stay there though – but it’s so different to everything else they do – even inside the song it appears in that it gets your attention.   This is generally a slower song, a lot of piano and Bono.  The rhythm section is hardly noticeable to my ears as I listen now.   They’re not absent, but definitely not the focus here.  The song never gets into a high gear, I always felt it was a bit of a palate cleanser after the harder edge song that precedes it.  I don’t dislike it, but there’s not a ton here musically.  Bono has a nice vocal delivery

Red Hill Mining Town – Sounds a bit like a sister song to Bullet the Blue Sky.  It has a driving “mostly bass” beat to it, that is the kind of song I can definitely get into.  The kind I stamp my feet to, and the beat just works for me – in the same way that Bullet does.  They don’t sound the same, but man, the more I listen to this album today, I feel that Clayton & Mullen are unsung heroes.  I don’t have a ton to say about this one but I listened to it twice now, and tapped my foot a lot.  Not the song that people would list super high on their lists of favorite U2 songs, but it definitely was enjoyable while I was here.

In God’s Country – This song reminds me a bit of “I Will Follow”.  The main guitar riff sounds similar in concept to that song.  My wife would probably disagree, she adores that early U2 stuff where I don’t.  It’s a faster paced song than some of the stuff on the album, and what I’d call a good solid album track.  In reading about it, it was the fourth single from the album, but I don’t remember that to be honest.  Still, while perhaps not the best on the album, it’s an enjoyable piece of music – very U2 in its sound – no doubt.

Trip Through Your Wires – When I saw the U2 show in 2017, they had some striking visuals on the rather gigantic screen.  the one one here with a shed where a woman dances and paints on the side was one I quite liked.  This is another song I tend to forget about, because when I listen to songs from Joshua Tree, it’s usually the more well known songs, and not the entire album.  When I listened to this again today, I was like “Oh yeah – I like this song”.  Definitely the kind of song when you hear it you go “Why the heck don’t I listen to this more”?  Has a harmonica sound that appears in several parts, another different sound from what the bulk of this album sounds like.   When I listened to this a second time now, it also reminds me a bit of a song that appeared on their next album, “Angel of Harlem”.

The last three songs on the album I have to confess I don’t have a ton of memories of – usually when I listen to this album I’ve either checked out by now or I’m just listening to a single song or two.  That’s no fault of the album as such, far more a “me” thing.  But these last three there’s not a lot of memories of.

One Tree Hill – I think this is one of the reasons why I usually check out now.  This song doesn’t do a ton for me.  It has the same kind of repeating sound that this album has had in spades to this point, but it doesn’t sound terribly unique.  Some of Bono’s vocals during the chorus aren’t too bad, but musically this is kind of just “there”, and it doesn’t do a ton for me.  It’s also the song longest song on the album (at 5:22), but despite my being indifferent towards it, I didn’t feel like it was a slog to get through either.  But probably the weakest song on the album for me.

Exit – The start of this song made me think they were repeating the opening to With Or Without You again.  About halfway through it loses that slow stuff and the full band kicks in.  It’s actually got a nice guitar sound that I wish there was more of.  Musically this sounds like something that could have appeared in a movie soundtrack.  It’s got that kind of feel to it.  As a piece of music, it’s hard to pin this down as it’s all over the place.  “This could have been a soundtrack song” is my overriding feel to this track.

Mothers of the Disappeared – This is probably my favorite of the last three on the album.  It’s got a vibe that just “feels” like an album closer.  Usually I get into how a song closes an album with metal bands, but this works here.  It too is on the slower side, but this works for me.  I actually don’t hear a ton of the rest of the album in this one like I have in other tracks.  Sometimes these slower songs find a higher gear halfway through or something, but not this time.  It stays in low gear, and most of the time that’s a sign that I’m not going to like it, but I did this time.  If this appeared anywhere else on the album except last, I don’t think it would have worked – but it’s well placed for the type of song it is.  Wraps everything up.  I can’t speak to the lyrics of this album too much, but I know it’s not a concept album as such – but I can’t think of any of the other 10 songs on this album that would have worked as well as Song 11’s “Mothers of the Disappeared”.  That song title alone is kind of odd out of context.  I went and read the lyrics and looked into it, and that’s some heavy shit – the kind of stuff that U2 became well known for later on in their career.

I’ve always enjoyed this album – which is rapidly approaching the door that says “40 years old”.  Today’s listen had one major revelation for me.  That was the fact that I’ve severely under appreciated Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen.  Obviously I know they’ve always been there – but I’ve never really sat there and took direct notice of what they brought to the table, so that was a fresh angle to an album I know well.  The kind of thing I’ve found from time to time doing this series, and one of the great benefits to me running through all my albums for sure.

It’s also the only U2 album I own on vinyl, so unless I pick up something new between now and the end of my project, I won’t be writing about them anymore, which is a shame as I own nearly all of their albums from this point forwards.  They’ve put out a crap ton of great music over the years, and I’m not one of the people that ONLY likes the classics from decades gone by.  There’s a lot to like in their newer material too.  Some of my favorite more recent U2 tracks are “Elevation“, “Vertigo” (they approach hard rock status with Vertigo), “Magnificent“,  “Window in the Skies“, and a whole WHOLE lot more.

About the concert I mentioned earlier.  My wife and I went to see U2 on the 30th anniversary of Joshua Tree tour.  The biggest problem here is that it was in Jerry World (officially AT&T Stadium) where the Dallas Cowboys play.  As a piece of architecture, that building is amazing.  For concerts, it’s FUCKING ASS.  Because I didn’t pay attention when tickets first went on sale, I had to way overpay.  But the problem there was that we were FOUR ROWS FROM THE FUCKING TOP of the place towards the back.  They were beyond nosebleed seats.  When the band played it wasn’t so bad, but when it was just Bono talking in-between songs?  Yeah, it sounded like the adults in The Peanuts.  It was godawful.  I’m told that if you have seats on the floor, a concert there isn’t so bad, but then that’s “boob job and cocaine” levels of cost for tickets – something I’m unable to do.  This U2 show, while enjoyable in the moment, isn’t really looked back terribly fondly by either of us.   It’s kept me from going back there for any concerts, and there’s been a few tours come through the Dallas area since then I passed because they played there.  That includes Metallica on the M72 tour in 2023, and AC/DC on the Pwr Up tour in 2025.  Both I REALLY want to go to, but won’t set foot in this place again for concerts – the acoustics are fucking AWFUL.  Check these two pics below.  One is from the start of the concert before anything happened with no zoom or anything just a straight shot.  And the second is from when U2 was playing – again no Zoom, but I pointed out where Bono was.  He’s a fucking ant.

To wrap this up completely, it’s an album I still enjoy in 2025, something that has strong memories to my wife of nearly 30 years who I’ve known for almost 40 – about the same time as this album has been around.  Perhaps not a 10 out of 10 album, but a very strong album just the same.  I think my writing above has shown that this album brings strong memories from the past, and as we age, they’re some of the most treasured things in life.  I’m glad to have them – but even more glad to have them with my wife, someone who I wouldn’t be anything without.  Yeah, this ending is more about my wife, but this album always reminds me of her, so they’re intertwined for me.

Just one final question – after nearly forty years, have they found what they’re looking for?